LP of the album Skylighght by Gelsey Bell & Erin Rogers. Edition of 150
Mastering and lacquer cut by Carl Rowatti (mastering engineer veteran)
Album artwork by Leah Asher
Includes digital pre-order of Skylighght.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
digital album releases May 10, 2024
item ships out on or around May 13, 2024
Purchasable with gift card
$20USDor more
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Skylighght. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Singer Gelsey Bell and saxophonist Erin Rogers have created a music built essentially upon mutual sensitivity. The sounds from each musician join together and intertwine as they cooperatively build each composition, and neither can move without impacting the other. The interlaced vibrations from voice and saxophone unite and react in a dynamic interplay as the two musicians become one in sound. The acoustic resonance of physical environment plays its part as well to inform an interactive relationship between performer and space.
The luminescent sonic jewels discovered through this collaborative process have been gathered to form Bell’s and Rogers’s new album, Skylighght. Much of this music’s enchantment is conveyed though its title - a nod to Adam Saroyan’s infamous poem, “lighght,” which the poet describes in saying, “that the crux of the poem is to try and make the ineffable, which is light... into a thing. An extra ‘gh’ does it...” The physical vibrations of Skylighght turn acoustics into intangible expressive energies through the performers’ dynamics and shared emphasis on breath; their interwoven resonances sculpt the compositions like a dance, with the two performers linked in movement of pitch and pulse. Moods on the album range from serene to yearning to discordant, often within a single composition, yet a sense of stillness is consistent from beginning to end.
Compositionally, the pieces of Skylighght are scored, each with its own emphasis on a specific set of techniques or strategies, though improvisation plays a primary role in determining structure and performance. Many variables contribute to this requisite spontaneity such as the dynamics of different acoustic spaces and the relative unpredictability of the performers’ interaction, factors upon which the compositions depend. Both musicians follow the sound as it finds its own path, working with it to develop new possibilities. A primary technique of many Skylighght compositions is that of Bell singing into the bell of Rogers’s saxophone while Rogers is playing. In this way, Bell pushes her voice through the same curves and material of the horn as well as the same augmentations of Rogers’s fingerings; Bell’s voice also reaches and activates the saxophone’s reed. Through this distinctive process, Bell and Rogers discover and articulate sounds, tonalities and multiphonics that are unique to their pairing.
Complimenting the performance techniques of the Skylighght project is the hyper awareness of its acoustic environment. The sonic resonance of space functions like an additional performer to the pair of Bell and Rogers. For this album, two of the same pieces were each recorded in two very different locations: a small, stone catacomb in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery and a beautiful studio live room (at Oktaven Audio in Mt. Vernon, NY). The renditions of each piece stand as distinct interpretations and comprise four of Skylighght’s five tracks.
Skylighght is an innovative album expressing a rare poetics of sound hinged on the union of musicians and environment. As physical vibrations radiate forth, rebound and combine, the performers coax their resonances and dynamics into intuitively felt energies. Stillness and discord alternately swell and subside in interlocked play with one another.
credits
releases May 10, 2024
Gelsey Bell - Voice
Erin Rogers - Saxophone;
Ryan Streber - Engineer at Oktaven Studios for recording of "Echidna Chasm", "Nereo Cave" and "Anhumas Abyss", February 2022
Zach Herchen - Engineer at Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs for
recording of "Twin Pollux" and "Antelope Canyon", September 2021
Ryan Streber - Mixing
Carl Rowatti - Mastering
Leah Asher - Album art
Brian Chase - Album layout
Kevin Bud Jones - Layout and design
Thank you to all the members of thingNY, Harry Weil and Green-Wood Cemetery, Brian Chase, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, Issue Project Room, Anna Sperber, Eric Farber, Dennis Sullivan, and Joseph White.
Gelsey Bell, voice, and Erin Rogers, saxophone, began their duo project, Skylighght, in 2019. The premier of Skylighght was
presented in May 2019 by composer-musician collective thingNY; it has since been performed at select locations including Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs. Bell and Rogers, each active musicians on the NYC avant-garde scene, have both been members of thingNY for over a decade....more
